The wheels have been spinning lately but due to the weather, not much digging is going on around Texas. This weekend I will travel to the Del Rio area, armed with my soil studies, and search for the elusive clay in the West Texas area. I say elusive because there is much hard rock covering the area. More on that to come.
My new book is being created and this one has a narwhal-mermaid-ocean motif. I was channeling the ancient Greeks with this one, thinking of my college time on the island of Create, and in particular the aqua blue of the rebuild plaice.
The Terra Sigillata met with mixed reviews in Waxahachie. The low-fire potters in this area use colored slips and these pots looked somewhat unfinished compared to those. I want to create some new terra sig, but I will use a clay with more iron to make a darker color than that of the pot. I'll post those when complete.
The final pot is a Terra Sig pot placed in the outdoor fireplace I have set up at my house. I buried the pot in ceder, pecan and oak and fired it for about 12 hours. We had 12 inches of snow, a record in these parts, and this pot is a good record of that storm. I love the reduction areas, and where I had wood burning inside the pot I got some excellent patterns. This is my first attempt at pit firing ever, and I'm learning that it's all placement of the fire next to the pot. The lip did crack off, but the pot itself stayed together with very few stress cracks.
All pots are Trinity Ceramics Terra Cotta, an earthenware which fires a light brick red at 06. These pots were fired to 06, and I usually glaze this clay to 03. All oxidation with the exception of the pit fired piece.
nice book. scales lend themselves nicely to your particular brand of busyness. have you considered snakes or lizards?
ReplyDelete